AUKS.. MURRES, AND PUFFINS: Family Alcidae [ 3x1 ] 



Plate 54, A.~) Si^e: "Length 14.40-15.60, wing 7.75, bill 1.30-1.45." (Bailey) 

 Nest: A shallow burrow, usually lined with feathers and grass. Egg: i, pale bluish 

 white or dull, dirty white, with a few to many spots or scrawls or various shades of 

 gray or pale brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Coastal islands from California northward to northwestern 

 Alaska, and from Japan to northeastern Siberia. In Oregon: Nests on suitable off- 

 shore rocks and headlands along entire coast. 



COMPARATIVELY LITTLE has appeared in Oregon literature about the Tufted 

 Puffin (Plate 54, 5). Prill (1901) recorded it as breeding at Otter Rock 

 in 1889, and Loomis (1901) found it off the mouth of the Rogue River, 

 but Finley's (1905^ account of it on Three Arch Rocks gave the first 

 adequate published material on this species that is now one of the most 

 abundant of the sea birds breeding on the Oregon coast. There, above 

 the thunder of the surf, on the steep slopes of offshore rocks or precipitous 

 headlands it digs its shallow nesting burrow, lays its single egg, and rears 

 its young. It nests, or has recently nested, to our knowledge, on the 

 rocks at the mouth of Pistol River, Island Rock near Port Orford, the 

 rocks near Bandon, Heceta Head, Seal Rocks, Yaquina Head, the rocks 

 off the mouth of Salmon River, those off the mouth of the Nestucca 

 River, Cape Lookout, Cape Meares, and Three Arch Rocks and adjacent 

 points on the mainland. Normally, few remain through the winter, but 

 from December 1932. to February 1933 many hundreds were present off the 

 Tillamook and Lincoln County coasts, where they were associated with 

 a great flight of more northern species. 



Tufted Puffins are most curious dumpy little birds. When sitting up 

 in front of the nest or on a rocky ledge above the water, their black 

 bodies, white plumes, and enormous bright-colored bills give them an air 

 of comical gravity found in no other bird. They are quite social, usually 

 nesting in colonies of considerable size and frequently fishing together in 

 similar groups. During the summer months, they are a conspicuous 

 element in the enormous mixed groups of seafowl that follow the move- 

 ments of the hordes of anchovies and other small fish along the coast. 

 Their flight is quite characteristic, the short, heavy bodies being driven 

 at high speed by their comparatively small, blunt wings. It is difficult 

 for them to rise off the water in calm weather or to launch themselves 

 into the air from the land. This may be one reason for their usual choice 

 of nesting sites on steep slopes (Plate 55) from whence they can dive 

 downward until sufficient momentum is gained to carry them along. 

 When once launched their flight is swift and direct. The birds find it 

 difficult, however, to alter the line of travel, either to rise or to turn 

 aside, and any such changes in their course are usually made in long 

 gradual curves. 



This bird was evidently a staple article of diet of the Oregon coast 

 Indians, as it is today with the Aleuts, because puffin bones have been 



